With open enrollment season upon us, HR teams are preparing to educate and assist employees with enrolling in their benefits offerings. As cut-and-dried as this may sound, employers have a critical job on their hands.

A 2023 Optavise Healthcare Literacy Survey reported that only 68% of employees are entirely confident in understanding how their plan works. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, only 12% of Americans have proficient health literacy skills—meaning most Americans don't have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

Because we tend to ignore what we don't understand, most employees choose to roll over their elections from the previous year, rather than doing some research into which plan is right for them. This can lead to employee dissatisfaction with their benefits, as well as missed cost-saving opportunities for both them and their employers. In an era of rising health care costs and increasing confusion surrounding what is and what isn't covered, it is especially crucial to ensure employees have a basic understanding of their options and how to choose the right plans for their situation.